February 8,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood water is looking to purchase a new water smart software ,the idea is to create a customer portal to offer better customer service and on demand access to customer account information . While we applaud Ridgewood water for moving into the 20th century ,maybe even the 21st century, issues were raised as to the cost ,integration and maintenance of the system . The mayor cleared up a few things when she realized there were some errors in the draft documents the Village made available to residents .
Mayor Knudsen ,” VC is providing “sunshine” binders allowing unprecedented access to DRAFT documents in the spirit of transparency. Typically there are errors and omissions in DRAFT documents and those are corrected before the public meeting when adopted by resolution. No different in this instance. I immediately noticed the errors and made notes for the Village Manager and Director Calbi. My meeting notes reflect a considerably lower cost based on a three year contract while the draft resolution shows the one time setup cost lumped with the total for the 3 year contract.At the right price the analytic software will provide valuable information and help with conservation efforts.I’m always happy to answer questions and going forward will have ALL binder documents marked as DRAFT. ”
What concerns us is the data collection bills have been know to be inaccurate . If Ridgewood water collects inaccurate data then the ability of the analytics will be compromised . This goes to the root of the problem . Ridgewood Water once again redirected the conversation toward consumer conservation , yet still no word on where the water is going to come from for all the high density projects going up in town.
A HUGE waste of money. Vote NO Village Council, please.
Why are we wasting money again? This town is far too susceptible to salesmen. It got us the turf and a lot of other expensive, unnecessary garbage. Time to skip the technological bells and whistles and focus on the basics.
Again just vote NO the Ridgewood way. It’s the samething everytime. Do you have a clue on what you are talking about?
The contract is being awarded to Rio Supply Inc – https://riosupply.com/ – there web site does not show this software.
Water Smart looks like an independent company based in San Francisco – https://www.watersmart.com/
Why does Ridgewood Water has to go through a middleman to purchase HOSTED SOFTWARE? They are not buying a CD / DVD of the software. Who will provide support and service if this contract is through Rio Supply Inc?
I don’t need a voice activated, cloud based, smart iPhone app to monitor my water usage.
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Just pump clean water, bill me correctly and do it at a reasonable price.
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It’s not high tech or complicated. Stop making it so.
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Is it actually just so you can have access to an app on your phone?! That seems like an extreme luxury.We could certainly use that money for some other line item. I think many people would rather put hundreds of thousands of dollars into something more pressing – like restoring the tree canopy – just as one example!
Jane, they have two bids – one on Nov 3rd for “billing data collection”, i.e. billing software, and this second one supposedly in early December (which I can’t find on village’s web site). The nov bid is for billing data collection and processing so all the heavy work is done by that software. This one, will just allow users to ‘analyze’ that data (monthly usage etc), and is mobile compatible.
The billing software itself should have those features. What this software is providing should not be added software, unless – we are planning to replace the billing software with this new one.
Migration / replacement from old to new makes sense. Buying this one IN ADDITION to the existing one does not.
How a about drilling some new wells and enforcing the rules.
Jane, please consider running for council again!
Sell Ridgewood Water. We can’t afford a mismanaged utility any more.
Does anyone even know what owning this company costs us? It seems to be more of a “loss” than a “profit” situation. How much does the town of Ridgewood contribute to its support? We have closed wells and polluted wells. The council is threatening to buy the Elks club to provide a central location for all the money losers to work from.(Is this a code for buying to expand the library as Nancy Green wanted to do? ) As 8:42 says, “we can’t afford a mismanaged utility any more.